INDIANAPOLIS—The nets at either end of the court constructed on the floor of Lucas Oil Stadium remained intact, even though there was a ladder available for any Louisville basketball players who wanted to climb and cut them down to celebrate a second consecutive Final Four appearance.

There will be no such celebrations for this group of Cardinals, however, unless they are able to claim the 2013 NCAA championship. They declined to cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden upon winning their second consecutive Big East Tournament even though, as coach Rick Pitino said, that event is special to him and this was the Cards’ last appearance. They knew in advance that if they were fortunate enough to defeat No. 2 seed Duke in the Midwest Region final that they’d accept the trophy and then head to the locker room.

“It’s Coach P’s thing, but we’re fired up about it," small forward Luke Hancock said. "We’ve got one goal. We’ll only cut one set of nets down. When we won the Big East, we didn’t cut down nets. We’ve got one set to cut down.”

Pitino said following Sunday evening’s 85-63 victory over Duke that he’d issued a series of goals to the team following their late-game collapse and five-overtime defeat at Notre Dame on Feb. 9. He wanted the team to close out the regular season with seven consecutive victories. He wanted that Big East tourney win.

“And let’s not cut any nets down until the final day we play,” Pitino said. “It may be us, but there’s three other teams that are going to have a say in it. Let’s just keep working hard, and it may be us.”

So the choice not to cut down the nets had nothing to do with the horrific injury suffered by sophomore guard Kevin Ware late in the first half of the Duke win, where he fractured his lower right leg on a simple close-out play. Ware challenged a 3-point shot by Blue Devils guard Tyler Thornton with 6:33 left in the first half, but when he landed his leg gave way.

This was why the Louisville locker room was so terribly subdued following the game, unlike any locker room of a regional champion we’d visited in a quarter-century of covering the NCAA Tournament.

There were no high-fives, no hugs, not even any smiles. The Cardinals graciously went about the business of answering some of the most difficult postgame questions they’d ever faced—difficult not because of the reporters’ approach but simply because of the subject matter.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling right now,” star guard Peyton Siva said.

“I’ve never been so happy and so sad at the same time,” assistant coach Kevin Keatts said.